Springbok coach Allister Coetzee continued with his bizarre selection process by calling up Duane Vermeulen to the Springbok squad, replacing the injured Coenie Oosthuizen.

It was confirmed that Oosthuizen has torn his ACL and MCL and faces a lengthy spell on the sidelines, looking at roughly 8 months out of the game.

Vermeuelen is back in the squad after some time, but has shown pretty good form for Toulon. His experience will also come in handy, having 37 caps behind his name.

With Pieter-Steph du Toit being confirmed a casualty and set to miss the test against France, it is likely that Francois Louw will shift back to the side of the scrum while Vermeulen leap frogs all other contenders straight into the starting line-up. Du Toit is concussed but should be ready to face Italy in a fortnight.

75 Comments

Costing is the use of our player. We could not help Coenie but Sharks union should decline sending non contracted boks to the slaughter this clown is going to decimate our stocks and still have nothing to show. Is there some like a vote of no confidence from union bosses towards the saru coaches?

Comment 1, posted at 13.11.17 14:21:26 by coolfusion

Can Ellendig not fake some injury so Frans can be called up too? What are the rules regarding these touring squads?

Comment 2, posted at 13.11.17 14:21:50 by Bokhoring

Dan DuPreez must be feeling super confident right now.
Eish so Coenie will miss a large part of super rugby then.

Comment 3, posted at 13.11.17 14:22:50 by SheldonK

Wish we could bring in new backline players
The bok backline is atrocious.

Comment 4, posted at 13.11.17 15:12:35 by The Great Couch Shark

Gutted for Coenie. I really hope this long layoff does not hurt all the good work he’s put in at Tighthead and when he does finally return he won’t have regressed any. All the best to him and his recovery. This does leave the Sharks in a delicate position and all of a sudden we’re looking very thin at Tighthead,. Imagine Meyer and Ross are our 2 best options right now. I imagine this will give Meyer a good opportunity to stake his claim.

On Duans return; I’m glad he’s back and hope he brings some much needed pride to the jersey. With PSDT out won’t that mean Cassiem moves into the side, or if anyone is willing to think like AC, would he instead choose a heavy, probably Duane, leaving Dan to holiday again? I’ll be interested to see how that goes.

Comment 5, posted at 13.11.17 15:38:09 by Hulk

Yay…

Comment 6, posted at 13.11.17 16:37:05 by pastorshark

Pessimist hat on here. I think it’s too late for the Boks. We’ve lost too much experience and continuity by the infuriating practice of firing a coach every 4 years, completely overhauling our game plan in an attempt to be “cool”, and gushing over young players who show talent over the ones with experience.
I cringe at the thought of all that rugby knowledge we’ve lost in dumping the likes of Bismarck, Jannie, Frans, JP, Ruan, Morne, etc, etc. That stuff can’t be taught or coached. How many times did Marx be an understudy to Bissie, or Ross to Ruan, Courtnall to Habana/JP…

AB philosophy: he was great in SR. Let’s work him into the team over a period of 2 years.
SA philosophy: he was great in SR. Let’s drop the geriatric in favour of “the future” in position x.

This should be the Bok backline, and this is IF Lambie is ok to play 10, if not I would play Frans at 10 with either AE or R van Rensburg at 12

15 Galant
14 Mapimpi
13 AM
12 Steyn
11 Nkosi
10 Lambie
09 Schreuder

Bench – Faf, Andre Esterhuizen/Ruhan, one other.

Comment 10, posted at 13.11.17 18:20:19 by sharks_lover

@sharks_lover (Comment 10) : If you have Steyn at 10 Ruhan Combrinck on wing with mapimpi or Nkosi on the other wing with le roux at 15 Am at 13 or even Esterhuizen at 12 Francois Venter at 12 off the bench and Schreuder at 9. Duane Vermeulen or Ginger on 8 Kollisi at 7 Louw on 6 Ruan Botha and Mostert on locks Herbst/ Marx on hooker Jannie and Kitshoff on Prop.

Comment 11, posted at 13.11.17 18:36:28 by coolfusion

@coolfusion (Comment 11) : I believe that would present some serious line breaking and therefor defense questions for the opposition.

Comment 12, posted at 13.11.17 18:38:24 by coolfusion

@coolfusion (Comment 11) : I think if you have steyn am at Centre with Ruan combrink on wing you can afford a live wire like kwagga at flank a monster like Duane on 8 more than enough cover for a smaller fh like Lambie.

@coolfusion (Comment 15) : Le roux not playing that well right now mate, Galant is in sublime form right now, so too Nkosi and both tic the boxes re players of color, Ditto Mapimpi and AM

Comment 17, posted at 13.11.17 19:10:01 by sharks_lover

@coolfusion (Comment 13) : Combrink is good but needs to find form, as for Rohan i see he signed for Sale Sharks today.

Comment 18, posted at 13.11.17 19:11:34 by sharks_lover

@sharks_lover (Comment 18) : Combrinck is a kicking option together with Steyn le roux lambie pollard we can literally cover any field angle. And all of them can do tactical

Comment 19, posted at 13.11.17 19:19:38 by coolfusion

So I’m thinking purely in terms of the players that are in the squad over there…but here are my thoughts:
At 15 – I know a lot of okes are pushing for Gelant…and he brings a lot on attack…but watching him closely all season I just think he is very weak on defense and I think that is not what we need right now. Curwin definitely doesn’t need this right now. So I would actually go with Kriel at 15…
At wing…our wings are all kak. Leyds is probably the best one there, so pick him. For the rest do what ever the hell you want. It doesn’t matter…
At centre…I think the centres were so atrocious that they should never be picked again, ever! Kriel goes to 15, DDA goes to kit boy. That leaves Am and Venter. I have picked Pollard at 10, so he is not available at centre…so Am and Venter it is.
At flyhalf…Pollard…not Jantjies…definitely not Jantjies…
At scrumhalf…Schreuder. Enough said…
At forward…basically do what you want…they’ll be ok. Rarely great, but ok. I think our squad selections at loosie mean we have almost no chance to pick a balanced loose trio. At tighthead we’re in trouble…the rest is ok. Not great, but ok…
Are we supposed to feel quite so empty when looking at our squad and trying to figure out something to do…anything?

Comment 20, posted at 13.11.17 20:54:00 by pastorshark

Really excited to have Vermulan back in the green and gold. Excited to see what he can do at no 3

Comment 21, posted at 13.11.17 21:39:18 by byron

@byron (Comment 21) : But seriously … we have one th in the squad who can actually scrum and another who gives away 100 penalties again. In europe you need a solid scrum. This should be a SOS call to Jannie Dupplessis. An I the only one missing the point.

Comment 22, posted at 13.11.17 21:42:32 by byron

@sharks_lover (Comment 10) : Gelant did not impress me at all in our CC games against the Bulls. Under pressure and in the wet – exactly the NH environment he will be playing in.

I would like him to have another super season under the belt before he starts for the Boks.

Comment 23, posted at 14.11.17 08:04:17 by Bokhoring

@pastorshark (Comment 20) : That’s a challenging game. Pick a half decent team from who is on tour (and explain your answers if they make no sense)…

15. Kriel
14. DDA (because everyone else is useless and DDA doesn’t pass and only runs into people so perhaps running for his life down the touch line is the only thing he will be good at. Nobody has complained about his ability to run straight yet . Just tell him no kicking )
13. Venter
12. Am
11. Leyds
10. Pollard
9. Schreuder
8. Vermuelen
7. Dan
6. Louw (C)
5. Mostert
4. PSDT
3. Louw
2. Marx
1. Kitsoff

16. Beast
17. Mbonambi
18. Nyakane (He can’t possibly give away more penalties than Dreyer)
19. Botha (I’m sure Botha is on tour but if he’s not Etzebeth)
20. Kolisi
21. Cronjie
22. Jantjies (just in case Pollard has to be removed from the field because he’s unconscious)
23. Coetzee (because I suppose he can play wing or FB, I don’t know who else to pick)

Comment 24, posted at 14.11.17 08:19:56 by Hulk

@Hulk (Comment 24) : I am just worried DDA is not going to be able to catch the high balls raining down on the back three either.

Comment 25, posted at 14.11.17 08:27:21 by Bokhoring

@gregkaos (Comment 7) : Ah so much love for this comment. Such a common trend in SA sport to throw away the incumbent as he is old and we need to build for the future with the little kids.
9. Pienaar 10. Lambie 11. Habana 12. Steyn 13. Serfontein 14. Pieterson 15. LeRoux…that backline would put up a much better fight than the kids did on Saturday

Comment 26, posted at 14.11.17 08:51:35 by SheldonK

@SheldonK (Comment 26) : The trick is to introduce the kids from the bench next to a bunch of hardebaarde. That has been working for the All Blacks for years.

It is not even a trick – it makes logical sense

Comment 27, posted at 14.11.17 08:59:59 by Bokhoring

@SheldonK (Comment 26) : Yeah, but so many got drawn into the idea we need to play running rugby to compete and all those guys allegedly can’t do that, so change everyone

I did think that Habana and JP had past their sell by date but we’ve replaced them with even worse options.

Comment 28, posted at 14.11.17 09:06:51 by Hulk

@Bokhoring (Comment 27) : That last line of your i where SA rugby consistently goes wrong.

Comment 29, posted at 14.11.17 09:50:35 by SheldonK

@Hulk (Comment 28) : Well as they say you only realise how good you have it when you change things. For all the criticism towards them- Habana and Pieterson were never as poor as those guys on Saturday.

Comment 30, posted at 14.11.17 09:51:33 by SheldonK

@Hulk (Comment 24) : I would rather have Coetzee on wing than DDA why even have him start any position at all? Quite happy to leave him on the bench until all options are exhausted.

Comment 31, posted at 14.11.17 09:55:15 by coolfusion

@Hulk (Comment 28) : Sure I agree. But you cannot argue that these guys have at least the basics down and mastered. What use is a younger faster wing or center if he can’t past catch or make a good tactical decision? The only thing he has is his raw speed and his youth pretty thin bargaining. I think youngsters are good but as we have seen time and again at the sharks you always need the experienced men/veterans to course correct. You must always try have the balance of vets vs raw talent. Have a look at NZ team sheets. I say have the most of your impact players be youngsters 30% of the starting guys be youngsters 40% second tour of duty guys (at least 1 year as a bok) and the rest your vets.

Comment 32, posted at 14.11.17 10:02:49 by coolfusion

I know our backline did not play the house on fire, but I would start with dropping Elton for Pollard. Elton plays too deep and the 15 minutes Pollard played against the AB`s in Cape Town, our crappy backline actually looked like they could do something… But agreed, that not our best backline that played over the weekend…

Comment 33, posted at 14.11.17 10:14:47 by VanWilder

@Bokhoring (Comment 25) : could he be worse than the lot on Saturday!?!?!?

Comment 34, posted at 14.11.17 10:17:46 by JD

My Christmas wish is that Curwin and Dan stay as far away from this septic Bok implosion as is humanly possible, neither of these bright prospects can gain anything from any involvement with what must now be an incredibly turgid environment.
They have nothing to lose by not being involved and everything to gain by coming into the next evolution untainted by Coetzee.

Comment 35, posted at 14.11.17 10:35:06 by The hound

@The hound (Comment 35) : Let’s hope the reports on him being fired by December are accurate. I feel Curwin and Dan isn’t ready for that level yet anyway, like Gelant I would like them to have another SR season under the belt at least(and no AC as coach). But, realistically, what can we expect from SARU regarding replacing AC, what are their options? Rassie as head coach with new assistants? Will they be brave enough to get someone in from overseas? It’s frustrating to know there’s a big chance SARU will most likely fuck up with their selection of who replaces Alistar and then were back to square one.

Comment 36, posted at 14.11.17 10:57:49 by Quintin

@Quintin (Comment 36) : Rather rephrase : Which overseas coach will be brave enough to take on the Bok coach job with all the other baggage that goes along with that?

Comment 37, posted at 14.11.17 11:10:32 by Bokhoring

@Bokhoring (Comment 37) : If the Proteas can get a foreign coach why not the Boks? Get Robbie Deans in asap

Comment 38, posted at 14.11.17 11:19:59 by slammerboy

@slammerboy (Comment 38) : Both Proteas and Bafana have/had foreign coaches, just the Boks it seems to be a taboo subject. Robbie Deans wouldnt be my pick though- lest we forget what he did with Australia

Comment 39, posted at 14.11.17 12:12:30 by SheldonK

@Quintin (Comment 36) : Fact is the best Sa players are no longer playing in SA. We can turn a blind eye and believe what we want but fact is until we pick from all available foreign players we will keep going backwards. Just watch Argentina will very soon change its policy on only picking guys playing locally

Comment 40, posted at 14.11.17 12:13:56 by SheldonK

@SheldonK (Comment 39) : Rugby is seen to be far behind cricket as far as transformation targets are concerned. Hence Bok coaches will always get flack from certain quarters – even though often the lack of representative team selections is not something they can do much about.

Comment 41, posted at 14.11.17 12:31:02 by Bokhoring

@slammerboy (Comment 38) : Cricket also does not have the rabid provincialism that you find in SA rugby

So what changes would everyone make using only the players in the squad there. As much as AC likes consstency he surely cannot select the same team again. Coenie and PSDT definitely out. I think Moster needs to start with Ruan Botha on the bench (id like him to start but im realistic). I think Paige and Pollard need to start although my preference would be Schreuder and Pollard. I think Vermuelen should come in at 7 with Dan at 8. Louw drops out. Id start Am at 12 and play Gelant at 15. We are still going to be weak out wide but not much can do about that now.

Comment 46, posted at 14.11.17 15:54:31 by SheldonK

I’d say props need to stay. Hooker also. Locks Ruan Botha and Mostert to start. Louw and Kollisi at Flank Vermeulen starting at 8. get him in now and maximize time on french game. He has been playing and knows french better than Dan. Dan is also still not there yet so might as well take the risk with Vermeulen. Schreuder at 9. How many times do we still have to “try” Page. What’s changed did he become better? No, so try something else. Pollard at 10. Jantjies adds nothing try something else. Venter at 12 Am at 13 Coetzee on 15 Leyds and Skosan on wings.

Comment 47, posted at 14.11.17 16:18:22 by coolfusion

@coolfusion (Comment 47) : I forgot about Venter. We could discard the little ones and try the following backline: 9. Schreuder 10. Pollard 11. DeAllende 12. AM 13. Venter 14. Kriel 15. Gelant. Thats not a small backline…good under high ball etc.

Comment 48, posted at 14.11.17 16:28:26 by SheldonK

@coolfusion (Comment 47) : Just pivot and midfield changes in the back row. Assess results. Then move on to changes for back three. Might have to play with gelant or Coetzee at wing if either or both leyds and Skosan don’t shape up. I would rip and replace 100% of the backline immediately else we learn very little.

Comment 49, posted at 14.11.17 16:29:51 by coolfusion

@SheldonK (Comment 48) : I think in the entire rugby world you are the only person including his mother that thinks De Allende should ever run onto a rugby field ever again, never mind start on Saturday in the 12 jersey for the Boks.
Its a bit early in the day to be smoking that stuff

Comment 50, posted at 14.11.17 17:18:17 by The hound

@SheldonK (Comment 48) : Hate to agree bud. But didi is the biggest part of the problem. Sheer size alone shouldn’t get him back in the fold.

Comment 51, posted at 14.11.17 17:39:52 by coolfusion

@coolfusion (Comment 51) : I would even let Elton back move pollard to inside center with Venter outside an push am to wing, before giving him another shot.

Comment 52, posted at 14.11.17 17:41:39 by coolfusion

I can’t see Toetie change too much to the team…honestly…I don’t. Especially not dropping his Eben or Paige or Cronje or DDA…I will not get my hopes up for too many changes if any apart from the forced ones…and we thought it was frustrating supporting The Sharks

@The hound (Comment 50) : @coolfusion (Comment 51) : Yeh look id love to leave the guy out but slim pickings there at the moment. The wings we have on tour are minor speedbumps for the opposition and hardly have the pace to trouble anyone. So yeh picking DDA is just for his size and maybe opposition find it slightly harder to run over him than those other little ones. Id certainly not pick DDA at centre. But yeh as i said- its quite slim pickings up north…France will target our back 3 thats for sure

Comment 58, posted at 15.11.17 10:02:27 by SheldonK

@SheldonK (Comment 48) : Would rather try Am on wing than Duh-duh with Pollard 12 Venter 13 and Gelant on FB. Not much to work with in the squad but we’ve got nothing to lose trying that out really altough I would prefer Pollard on 10 over Elton.

To me, Botha has to start no doubt. He will bring some much needed leadership to a spineless team. Eben is not captain material, period.

Comment 59, posted at 15.11.17 10:09:35 by Quintin

@Quintin (Comment 59) : I really dont think a Jantjies/Pollard combo would work..Jantjies needs a hard runner at 12. Im not sure what kind of 10 Pollard will cobine well with as havnt really seen him at 12. Pollard (10), Am (12), Venter (13) would be my picks

Comment 60, posted at 15.11.17 11:01:33 by SheldonK

@SheldonK (Comment 60) : Yeah it’s just an option if literally everything has been tried with the current players available in the squad I guess. My main concern is, and has been since the beginning of the year, the back three. Our quality there is way below what is required at that level. We have to try other players there now(year end tour) as we don’t have a lot of time to bleed new players before the world cup.

@SheldonK (Comment 58) : How does a Springbok coach get himself into this sort of mess!!

Comment 64, posted at 15.11.17 13:21:09 by pastorshark

@pastorshark (Comment 64) : Stubborness or listening to bad advice. I refuse to believe he picks the team alone with no input from the others…so its a collective problem. I also think the players have lost that fight, especially up north. Too often we just fold when its not a nice hard dry field and things go our way.

Comment 65, posted at 15.11.17 13:24:07 by SheldonK

@Quintin (Comment 61) : Yeh fully agree on the back 3. We were too quick to pass over the experience of the young guys who arent that quick and cant tackle

Comment 66, posted at 15.11.17 13:28:26 by SheldonK

Oom Rugby has some interesting comments about the general lack of rugby intelligence in the Bok back line in his column “Boks play with eyes wide shut” on All Out Rugby.

Comment 67, posted at 15.11.17 13:39:41 by Bokhoring

@Bokhoring (Comment 67) : Actually scary how many overlaps the Boks butchered in that game

Comment 68, posted at 15.11.17 13:41:14 by Bokhoring

RWC decision

Comment 69, posted at 15.11.17 22:50:32 by pastorshark

@pastorshark (Comment 69) : I suppose with the way SARU have messed up a once great team like the Boks, they don’t want SARU messing up their great RWC. I don’t see SA having much chance in the future to host a RWC after this decision.

Comment 70, posted at 15.11.17 23:27:02 by Dancing Bear

@pastorshark (Comment 69) : at least hopefully the Sharks wont be forced into moving any longer.

Comment 71, posted at 16.11.17 02:57:54 by Uli Boelie

@pastorshark (Comment 69) : @Dancing Bear (Comment 70) : @Uli Boelie (Comment 71) : I had a feeling France will win as the 6 Nations Unions will vote for France (once Ireland was eliminated). Must say I would love to know how the Unions voted especially to see how Argies, NZ and Oz voted!?

@JD (Comment 72) : They all voted for SA, from what I understand is that “normally” all SANZAR nations have to supports their follow applicant.
Where France won it was by collecting all the minnow nations support, obviously allot of promises was made.

Comment 74, posted at 16.11.17 22:10:56 by Uli Boelie

@SheldonK (Comment 73) : @Uli Boelie (Comment 74) : OK so let me be the first: I think it was Russian hackers that did it!!!